IN DEFENSE OF TRADITIONAL PRIESTS By Fr. Paul A. Wickens TRADITIO Traditional Roman Catholic Internet Site E-mail List: traditio@traditio.com, Web Page: http://www.traditio.com Copyright 1997 PAW. Reproduction prohibited without authorization. Frequently we see articles in some traditional magazines by priests who decry "disobedience" to ecclesiastical laws. Lots of sniper fire is aimed at the various traditional organizations of priests and bishops, as well as the so-called independent priests. This attitude is so full of sophomoric inconsistency that we can hardly restrain our laughter. These same priest-essayists have been consistently and flagrantly disobeying church regulations for the last two decades with many of their actions: female altar servers, communion in the hand or under both species, non-clerics giving the sermon, non-scripture readings at Mass, leaving the sanctuary to give the sign of peace, improper purification of sacred vessels, Eucharistic ministers used in non- extraordinary circumstances, eliminiation of patens, adding prayers to the Mass, etc. Yet, these are only minor trangressions compared with the heresy taught in the pulpits, the Modernist catechisms in the schools, the erotic sex ed in the classrooms, the uncatholic RENEW and R.C.I.A. programs. And how about the subjectivism in morality so common in the confessionals? And how about the proliferation of General Absoluton in parishes, at weddings, in funeral homes? And what about these hospital chaplains who give communion to everybody regardless of creed? Yes, you may say, but our priest-essayists would not do any of the above. Do you want to bet? They have all been a part of liturgies, parishes, schools, hospitals at which these flagrant acts of disobedience took place. They are guilty through association, through cooperation, and through silence. Did these priest-essayists walk off the altar? Did they refuse to associate with a parish or diocese that is obviously disobeying Church Law? No way! Their salary and reputation might be endangered. So to feel good about themselves, they criticize the uncompromising loyal priests who are willing to lose all for Christ. It figures! [Reprinted from The Catholic Voice: Newsletter of the Society of Traditional Roman Catholics, March 1996, page 1.] By Abbot Leonard Giardino We turn our thoughts to all those great men -- Priests: the Traditional Priests in the Roman Catholic Church. We are grateful to them for their great courage and their genuine and profound dedication to the fact of and the observance of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: the Mass according to the form ordained by the Council of Trent. We admire these men. They have not acted stubbornly. Neither have they exhibited a spirit of rebellion. Rather, they have courageously adhered to the established doctrine and the traditional ceremonies and usages of our venerable Catholic Religion. They have never faltered. Their devotion to the Catholicism taught them by their forefathers has always been genuine and constant. Without exception, they have been loyal -- always loyal -- to the immemorial and awe-inspiring forms of Sacred Tradition. In every circumstance they have maintained due reverence in their observance of that which is sacred and which they consider as alone proper and fitting for the Divine Worship. With never a thought of compromise to distract them, they have valiantly shunned all novel and strange forms of modern Catholic worship. They believe such ceremonial rites to be unfit, alien, and unworthy in the expresson of the true Catholic Faith.... When the Church they have always loved began to crumble before their eyes, undaunted, they automatically and in full possession of their instincts turned their efforts to the preservation of that which has been so much a part of their lives, and which they were quite certain could never be lawfully denied them: the Mass. For this, these good priests of God have been labeled diobedient, unruly, and psychologically unbalanced. They have been condemned because they failed to keep up with changing times and the Catholic updating program. They have been ridiculed for adhering to what is now classified as an outmoded religion.... To be sure, their suffering and fear have been truly great. Martyrs every one, and for the sake of that which they believe in from the deepest recesses of of their hearts and souls.... [Reprinted from Speculum Benedictinum, No. 13: Assumption 1996, pages 3-4.]